MW-DESP: An integrated approach to ethanol production from rice straw via microwave-assisted deep eutectic solvent pretreatment and sequential...

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Lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) is a sustainable energy resource to produce biofuels and biobased chemicals without affecting the global food security. The recalcitrant nature of LCB hinders enzymatic hydrolysis, thus pretreatment is a critical step. Choline chloride:glycerol (ChCl:Gly) is a promising solvent for LCB delignification. The innovation aspect of the project consists of microwave-assisted ChCl:Gly pretreatment to delignify rice straw in conjunction with a sequential cultivation of Candida tropicalis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae to ferment sugars into ethanol with the aim of developing a zero waste biorefinery. The project consists of seven research objectives with overall aim of training the Fellow for academic expertise, professional skills and multidisciplinary collaboration. The project activities are divided into seven work packages (WPs). WP1: obtain overall training and Knowledge Inter-Transfer. WP2: Raw material preprocessing, pretreatment, biomass characterization and process optimization. WP3: ChCl:Gly recycling by applying anti-solvent treatment method. WP4: Lignin recovery and conversion into bio-oil via fast-pyrolysis. WP5: Enzymatic hydrolysis and process optimization. WP6: Studies on microbial stress (osmotic, ethanol and temperature) tolerance by employing flow cytometry, selection of well adapted yeast strains and fermentation. WP7: Techno-economic analysis based on the conceptual model of a cellulosic ethanol plant. Expected outcomes are: The technological development will create industrially accessible zero-waste strategy that can be adopted for the processing of other biomass feedstock (e.g. municipal solid waste and forestry residues). The competition between food and fuel will be avoided, thus protecting the global food security. It will also help to decrease CO2 emissions and combat global warming. This project is well aligned with the European Union biofuels support policy, aimed at lowering CO2 emissions in the transport sector.